Bill Cooper thought Imokilly's glory days were behind them

The 36-year-old Cooper said Imokilly's younger players want to emulate their more experienced teammates by winning a county medal.

Tue, 15 Oct, 2024 - 06:15

Eoghan Cormican

Let’s begin by going back to 2018. Imokilly’s county title defence that season was strengthened by a raft of new and returning faces.

Barry Lawton was home from Australia. Corner-back Mike Russell, who’d missed the previous year’s success because of a ruptured cruciate, had removed his name from the injury list.

Beside Russell in the full-back berth was Colm Spillane. Finished with the lecture halls of UCC and therefore no longer eligible to line out for the college in the county championship, he threw his lot in with the East Cork division.

And then there was another Cork senior in Bill Cooper. Youghal’s relegation the previous September was Imokilly’s reward.

Cooper had hurled with the division prior to Youghal's senior promotion in 2013. They were leaner times for Imokilly. There was nothing lean about what he was returning to. He was glad to see them thriving and they were equally glad to see him throwing back on the stripey shirt.

In the 2018 county final, he struck four from play from midfield. From the same position, he rose three white flags in the 2019 triumph over Glen Rovers.

He always showed up for Imokilly. He’s still showing up. Cooper turns 37 in December and yet remains part of the midfield engine room.

“You have to think about if you weren’t playing - what would you be doing?” he replies when asked if he gave consideration to focusing strictly on club matters in recent years.

“It’s my hobby. It’s what you love to do. Definitely, I had a couple of bad injuries when I finished up with Cork, my Achilles and things, so when I did get my full fitness back it gave me another appreciation for being fit and being able to play.

“I’m just taking things as they come now and not looking too far ahead.”

What Cooper also gave consideration to was there being no more county final afternoons in the red and white of East Cork. He, like several more, thought the glory days of this Imokilly generation were behind them.

“I did, to be honest. We know how tough it’s been for the last few years and the championship has been very competitive so, yeah, definitely, we don’t take it for granted. It’s great to be back.”

Their three-in-a-row group was broken up by Fr O'Neill's winning the Premier Intermediate in October 2019 and the restructuring of the Cork championship that took place around the same time. Fr O’Neill’s and Cloyne's involvement in the new Senior A championship for 2020 immediately took out of the Imokilly dressing-room four starting members - Ger Millerick, Declan Dalton, Mark O’Keeffe, and Paudie O’Sullivan - of the 2019 all-conquering team.

There hasn’t been a county final appearance since. Older heads such as Cooper, Russell, Brian Lawton, and John Cronin have hung around and continue to serve. Keeping them young inside the whitewash is the freshness brought by the Cork U20 trio of Diarmuid Healy, Jack Leahy, and Timmy Wilk. Ciarán Joyce and Daire O’Leary are two more in their very early 20s who’ve helped to rebuild, regenerate, and return Imokilly to the county final conversation.

“We have a lot of experience in the group, but we’ve seen it the last couple of years, the younger players have been really driving it on,” Cooper continued.

“The younger lads have come in with a lot of hunger over the last few years, that’s what I’ve noticed. They’ve probably been going to the games when they were a bit younger and seeing Imokilly winning counties. They want to get a county medal now as well, so that has brought things on over the last few years.

“We have last year’s experience to draw from (losing to Sars after extra-time in the semi-final). We know that we have to be on it because Sars are a very good team. Last year was a tough one to take, so hopefully we’ll be able to bring our best performance and hopefully that’ll be enough.”